Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Database

The RIDGE Program summarizes research findings of projects that were awarded 1-year grants through its partner institutions. All projects were conducted under research grants from ERS, and the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA. For more information about publications or other project outputs for a specific RIDGE study, contact the investigator or research center that awarded the grant. For a customized list of RIDGE projects and summaries, search by keyword(s), project, research center, investigator, or year:

Project:Is the Food Stamp Program an Adequate Safety Net for American Indian Reservations? The Northern Cheyenne Case

Year: 2000

Research Center: American Indian Studies Program, The University of Arizona

In this second year of their small grant funding, the
authors set out to:

Clarify the impact of recent food assistance
changes, in particular food stamp eligibility requirements
and duration of benefits, on the role of the
Food Stamp Program in the social safety net serving
the Northern Cheyenne reservation.

Clarify the role of food stamps in relation to the
larger range of formal and informal services and
resources available to economically vulnerable
Cheyenne.

Identify, using both qualitative and quantitative data,
how tribal, community, county, and State agencies
contribute to the social safety net; determine how
each of these resources relates to the larger social and
cultural context in which clients are struggling to
adapt to new food assistance program requirements.

The research team used several methods to collect and
analyze data, including indepth, face-to-face interviews
with program clients, food assistance program
directors, and employers at sites where TANF recipients
do required work hours. They also conducted
participant observation of food stamp recipient experiences
with this program and analyzed secondary data
from food assistance programs.

The authors began their research with the premise that
many expect the Food Stamp Program to play a major
role in meeting the food assistance needs of reservation
residents participating in FAIM, the Montana
income assistance program. They found that a number
of clients are grateful for the benefits they receive. Of
particular value to these clients is the flexibility
provided by the Food Stamp Program to purchase the
kinds of foods that their families want. However,
clients also identified major problems with their
reliance on food stamps to feed their families. One of
these problems is lack of transportation (access to a
vehicle and money for gasoline) to shop off the reservation,
where prices are lower. Another is making their
food last through the month. Since many clients lacked
these resources and skills, extra “work” is required—
beyond meeting the work-hour requirements to participate
in FAIM—to feed their families. This typically
involves seeking out sources of emergency food
through their local network of family, churches, and
food banks. Thus, because the food stamp system
relies on retail food markets to distribute food, and
because these markets are often difficult for reservation
residents to reach, using food stamps is an additional
hardship for recipients. The data from Northern
Cheyenne recipients indicate that their safety net has
been stretched thin.

The authors found that high unemployment makes the
FAIM incentives to leave welfare and join the labor
force ineffective within this rural reservation population.
Because of the lack of employment opportunities,
most clients do not foresee that they will be able to
obtain even minimum wage jobs. Even if they are able
to find jobs, they see the resulting decline in benefits
increasing the hardship on their families when transportation
and childcare needs are not met.

Leaving the reservation to find work is equally problematic;
most work opportunities in nearby cities are
not much better than those on the reservation. In addition,
many Cheyenne are concerned about encountering
discrimination and about their lack of financial
and social resources for coping with the demands they
will face in an urban setting. The authors conclude that
unless clients obtain local jobs, most will continue to
participate in FAIM for as long as possible.

Because few private sector businesses offer work
opportunities for FAIM participants, most work in
public sector jobs, thus providing a source of subsidized
labor for public agencies. Public sector agencies
on the Northern Cheyenne reservation benefit from the
FAIM program while helping FAIM participants to
develop new job skills. In turn, the tribal government,
local tribal resources, and the reservation community
assume responsibility for Northern Cheyenne FAIM
participants who cannot feed their families. This
responsibility falls primarily on the Tribal Food
Distribution program, which is better able than Federal
and State programs to meet some of the most important
food needs of reservation residents. The authors
argue that the effect of Federal and State assistance
programs is to place the responsibility for care of the
poorest of the poor on the tribe. The tribe must then
either directly care for those in need or push them off
the reservation.

The data collected in this and the previous research
project suggest several reasons for these outcomes.
First, the expectation that reservation residents can
meet program requirements, utilize FAIM program
benefits, enhance their work skills, and obtain access
to jobs that will move them out of poverty is, in fact,
unrealistic. Even using food stamps to adequately feed
their families is problematic where lack of transportation
and childcare prevents clients from meeting
program requirements and from reaching more reasonably
priced food stores. Even more unrealistic, the
authors argue, is the assumption that clients can use
newly acquired work skills to access jobs in a labor
market currently accommodating less than 50 percent
of the adults who need jobs. Second, the program does
not adequately address the needs of the poorest
Cheyenne who want to remain in their community
because it is their ancestral home, who want to support
their families by working in locally relevant and
productive jobs, and who want the freedom to follow
Cheyenne cultural traditions and norms even while
participating in FAIM. Local FAIM and other social
service program directors are aware of the problems
and needs of Northern Cheyenne clients. Nevertheless,
under the current program requirements, they can do
little to improve the ability of the FAIM program to
meet the unique needs of this population. The authors
conclude with recommendations for future research to
measure the effect of current policy on the food security
and nutritional status of low-income Cheyenne.